Faculty Bibliography

Summary: A federal study says the surgery to relieve pressure on the optic nerve is ineffective and may make things worse An eye operation routinely done to correct the most common cause of sudden loss of vision in people 60 and older has been found to be so ineffective, and possibly harmful, that federal health officials are warning eye surgeons to stop doing the procedure. The eye condition, known as non-arteritic ischemic optic neuropathy, comes on so suddenly that those affected by it often awake with their vision gone in one eye

An eye operation routinely done to correct the most common cause of sudden loss of vision in people 60 and older has been found to be so ineffective, and possibly harmful, that federal health officials are warning eye surgeons to stop doing the procedure. The eye condition, known as nonarteritic ischemic optic neuropathy, comes on so suddenly that those affected by it often awake with their vision gone in one eye. In 40 percent of those affected, loss of vision can eventually develop in both eyes. The condition results from a painless swelling of the optic nerve that connects the eye and the brain

An eye operation routinely done to correct the most common cause of sudden loss of vision in people 60 and older has been found to be so ineffective, and possibly harmful, that federal health officials are warning eye surgeons to stop doing the procedure. The eye condition, known as nonarteritic ischemic optic neuropathy, comes on so suddenly that those affected by it often awake with their vision gone in one eye. In 40 percent of those affected, loss of vision can eventually develop in both eyes. The condition results from a painless swelling of the optic nerve that connects the eye and the brain

Findings from the study, believed to be the largest of its kind, point to biases in how doctors choose the pacemakers they implant in patients, the authors said Tuesday in Circulation, a medical journal of the American Heart Association in Dallas. However, the study wasn't designed to determine the cause of any such biases, the authors said

There are a variety of types of pacemakers and they have undergone continuous modification. The new study focused on two broad types known as single- and dual-chamber pacemakers. The single, and older, type controls the rhythm through electrical stimulation of the ventricle, or bottom chamber of the heart. The dual-chamber pacemaker controls both the atrium, the upper chamber, and the ventricle. Dual-chamber pacemakers cost about $5,000, compared with about $3,000 for single pacemakers, and do not last as long as single-chamber devices, Dr. Lamas said. The study found increasing use of dual-chamber pacemakers, which were first installed about 15 years ago. The researchers reviewed the records of more than 36,000 Medicare patients -- a 20 percent random national sample -- who were 65 years of age or older and who had a single- or dual-chamber pacemaker implanted from 1988 through 1990. They found that 24,715, or 68.1 percent, received a single-chamber device; the rest received a dual-chamber device

The drug AZT has proved so ineffective in preventing the progression of AIDS in children that federal health officials have halted part of a large study involving it. The long-term study, begun in August 1991, involved 839 children initially 3 months to 18 years old, who were treated in 62 hospitals. The children were divided at random into three groups: one that received AZT alone, one that received didanosine, or ddI, and a third that received a combination of AZT and ddI. Neither the children and their parents nor the doctors knew which therapy each child received. Federal officials agreed and stopped the AZT part of the study on Feb. 6. The part of the study comparing ddI alone and ddI in combination with AZT is continuing. The monitoring committee found no statistically significant differences between the two regimes on its latest routine interim check

Repeated injections of plasma from otherwise healthy HIV-infected people into patients with advanced AIDS slowed progression of the disease for one year in a new French study. The experimental injections delayed the appearance of toxoplasmosis of the brain, cytomegalovirus and other opportunistic infections that commonly occur as a complication of AIDS, as well as wasting, cancers and an abnormal function of the brain known as encephalopathy

WASHINGTON - Repeated injections of plasma from otherwise healthy HIV-infected people into patients with advanced AIDS slowed progression of the disease for one year in a French study. The experimental injections delayed the appearance of toxoplasmosis of the brain, cytomegalovirus and other opportunistic infections that occur as a complication of AIDS, as well as wasting, cancers and an abnormal function of the brain known as encephalopathy. The plasma injections, known as passive immunotherapy, resulted in a threefold decrease in the cumulative number of such adverse events, said the French team, headed by Dr. J.J. Lefrere at the Hopital Saint-Antoine in Paris

In a major surprise about the treatment of the AIDS virus in children, the drug AZT, which is now the standard treatment, proved so ineffective in preventing disease progression that federal health officials have halted part of a large study involving it ahead of schedule. The long-term study, begun in August 1991, involved 839 children initially aged 3 months to 18 years, who were treated in 62 hospitals. The children were divided at random into three groups: one that received AZT alone, one that received didanosine, or ddI, and a third that received a combination of AZT and ddI. Neither the children and their parents nor the doctors knew which therapy each child received

Repeated injections of plasma from otherwise healthy HIV-infected people into patients with advanced AIDS slowed progression of the disease for one year in a new French study. Passive immunotherapy, as the procedure is called, resulted in a three-fold decrease in the appearance of toxoplasmosis of the brain, cytomegalovirus and other opportunistic infections that commonly occur as a complication of AIDS, as well as wasting, cancers and encephalopathy